User:Froggydarb/Australian Frog List

List of Australian Amphibian Genera
About 230 of the world's known 5,280 species of frog occur in Australia. Compared with other countries this number is fairly low and may be related to the aridity of most of the Australian continent. Dispite the lack of species there is a great diversity of habitats that is seen among Australian frogs. Variations in rainfall, temperature, altitude and latitude have resulted in a large number of habitats, many of which Australian species inhabit.

During the 1980's declines were reported in Australian frog species. Many of the frogs that were reported as declining were high altitude creek dwelling species that had little or no contact with human activities. This indicated that habitat loss and degredation were not responsible for all the declines. The causes for the dramatic declines is unknown but the chytrid fungus may be a factor. Currently three Australian species of frogs are classified as extinct, 14 listed as critically endangered and 18 listed as endangered. Of the 14 critically extinct species 4 of them haven't been recorded for over 15 years and may now be extinct.

The Australian frog fauna are broken up into 5 families, 6 sub-families and 26 genera.


 * Bufonidae - In Australia there is only one species in this family. The Cane Toad (Bufo marinus) is an introduced pest that was brought from Hawaii in 1935 and set free in serveral locations thoughout Queensland.
 * Hylidae - In Australia this family consists of three genera; Cyclorana, Litoria and Nyctimystes. Cyclorana is a genus of frog that occurs only in Australia. Litoria occurs thoughout Australia, the Bismarck Archipelago, Lesser Sunda Islands, Moluccan Islands, New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Timor. Nyctimystes is principally a New Guinea genus but they do occur on the Moluccan Islands and Australia.
 * Microhylidae - This family consists of two genera in Australia; Austrochaperina and Cophixalus most of the species in both these genera inhabit New Guinea with serveral occuring in Australia.
 * Myobatrachidae - This family is only found in Australia and New Guinea, with the vast majority of species occuring in Australia.
 * Ranidae - This family is found on every continent except Antarctica and is represented with a sole species in Australia, the Australian Wood Frog.